For Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he d leave his LA screenwriting job to become a college professor, and where they celebrated the marriage of their daughter Laura s best friend But when their beloved Laura s wedding takes placeFor Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he d leave his LA screenwriting job to become a college professor, and where they celebrated the marriage of their daughter Laura s best friend But when their beloved Laura s wedding takes place a year later, Griffin is caught between chauffeuring his mother s and father s ashes in two urns and contending with Joy and her large, unruly family Both he and she have also brought dates along How in the world could this have happened By turns hilarious, rueful, and uplifting, That Old Cape Magic is a profoundly involving novel about marriage, family, and all the other ties that bind.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Title: That Old Cape Magic

Author: Richard Russo

ISBN: null

Page: 323

Format: Kindle Edition

Comments

The title refers to a modification of the song “That Old Black Magic,” a tune sung with verve and hope by narrator Jack Griffin’s parents when they would cross the bridge into Cape Cod every summer for one month of relief from eleven months of misery. Each of the book’s eleven chapters connects to some aspect of Cape Cod in Jack’s life, from summer vacations there as a kid, to his honeymoon to the wedding of his daughter’s friend, and later his daughter’s wedding. Place is importan [...]

I find Richard Russo's greatest strength to be the humanity he gives to his working-class, somewhat crude, and deeply flawed characters in the blue-collar New England and upstate New York towns he generally chronicles.That said, this is a book centered on the highly cerebral problems of a middle-aged, middle-class academic going through a life crisis. Soah, not so much.Russo's writing ability still shines through, but the characters just don't have that sympathetic spark that binds the reader to [...]

This book has moments in which you can see that Richard Russo has vision and could write a masterpiece. This is not it. This is pretty much your predictable fluffy “marriage on the rocks, but we really love each other” novel. There is humor, conflict of the soul, and the proven conviction that there is no such thing as a family that is not dysfunctional on some level. It is also about the expectations we have of ourselves and those other have for us, and how those conflict and often disappoi [...]

Russo said in an interview that he’d originally intended for this to be a short story. Then he wrote a scene where Jack Griffin, his main character, was on the side of the road talking to his shrew of a mother on the phone when a seagull flew by and dropped a calling card on his head. At that point any tidy resolutions to Griffin’s problems weren’t going to work – further development was going to be needed. But at 261 pages, we could have used more. To be honest, it felt a little thin. I [...]

This is the first book by Richard Russo that I have read and I know he has had some great reviews on previous publications. This was just an OK book for me. It reminded me of a 21st Century Updike or Cheevers. There was almost as much drinking, cheating and dysfunction, but not as many interesting people. The academic snobbery hasn't changed with the century. Other than the male protagonist's wife , daughter and temporary girlfriend, I didn't like or relate to any of the characters in this book. [...]

This is my first Russo book and I did enjoy it. Some have said it's about a man's midlife crisis, but I am not altogether sure that's what it's about at all. It's about a man and his wife, his parents and hers. It's about the influences and familial situations and relationships (real or imagined) that make us who we are.It's about guilt, love, self effacing, self love or at least self acceptance. It's about what it really takes to look truthfully into that all knowing mirror and not turn away fr [...]

Rick Russo's new book contains some familiar, beloved elements for Russo-philes-- a devoted, exhausted wife; a smart, snarky daughter; an irritating mother who doesn't stop meddling, even after death--and at the center, a restless, loving soul, this time the professor Griffin, who wrestles with life's meaning, love, and legacy. But there's new ground here too, not least in the brevity and economy of the story. Plus, at times CAPE MAGIC is more laugh out loud funny than any Russo book in recent m [...]

Jack's journey of soul searching and finding his way was warmly told and delightfully entertaining. Jack is afraid to fully engage in life. He keeps much of himself to himself, so much so that he pushes people away, especially those who love him.In middle-age, he struggles to understand himself, his life, what's important and what he wantst what others want for him. Who is Jack? The story is told with humor, warmth, family and life. This is the first of Richard Russo's books that I've read and I [...]

While I haven't read tons by Russo, I definitely will count on any of his books to engage me. He is able to make small moments so important. I marvel at how the thread unravels. This deals with a couple attending two different weddings. They have been married for over thirty years. But this is Russo, so you know there's way more going on here. Another great story from a gifted writer.

Be forewarned: When you gaze into the eyes of your future mate and proclaim "I do," odds are that you're tying the knot with three people, not one. Richard Russo's recent novel explores the inconvenient fact that most marriages involve two players on the field and four players on the bench; each partner's parents are shadow participants in the enterprise, despite their physical distance or animate state.Jack Griffin and his wife, Joy, have weathered a 30-year union with relative success. The mar [...]

First impressions:What really comes to the fore in a sort of throwaway novel like this is just how good a writer Russo is. Even with a story that is not meant to be overly complex, and isn't weighed down with a large cast of characters, Russo is such a capable craftsman.When I, as a person who (sadly) can't write, think of the writing process I think of sitting down, looking around the room, taking a deep breath, and starting to type. Russo dashes this image completely. I saw an interview with h [...]

Oh boy! ohboy ohboy ohboy ohboy Whenever I give a book five stars and don't write much of a review, you all know that it moved me so much that I don't know what to say. I adore Richard Russo, but have never given any of his books five stars. Partway through the book, I never would have expected this to be the one to get the fifth star. But I stuck with it because I knew Russo wouldn't let me down, and by the end I was laughing and crying at the same time. To truly appreciate what this book offer [...]

Hilarious! Slapstick! Russo? Yes, so cleverly written. Loved it.From the NYTimes Book Review (Roxanna Robinson): "Family, family, family is the subject of “That Old Cape Magic.” The family is where the best — and the worst — things happen to us. Whether we embrace it or try to escape it, the family is at the center of our lives. Along with that voracious little worm of dissatisfaction, munching away."nytimes/2009/08/16/boo

There are two weddings used as bookends with a year in the protagonist's life in between. Jack Griffin, after 34 years of marriage, is dealing with the question of who he wants to be when he grows up. His life has sort of snuck up on him and he's not sure if he's happy with where he ends up.We get to spend lots of very well written angst-filled days with Jack. Both of his parents have died within this past year, bringing up all kinds of memories. Let's just say Jack's parents weren't the warmest [...]

This was my first novel by Mr Russo and I did enjoy the oft told tale of a marriage that has soured over the years and the impact one's parents have on what you yourself become. It was a quick read and had a number of characters who were both likeable, but oftentimes seemed a bit whiny. I felt the end of the book was better than the beginning and particularly enjoyed the main character's talks with both his deceased mother and father which by the way, he carried (their ashes), around in the trun [...]

What could be wrong with this book? The writing is very good, as one would expect from Richard Russo. The plot is barely there, but that isn’t an issue. The characters are vivid—and that’s the problem. Nearly to a man (or woman), the characters are unlikable, and they are so vividly drawn that the reader feels like they’re jumping off the page—unfortunately, because these are not characters with whom you’d ever want to interact in real life. The protagonist is Jack, whose parents are [...]

A sweet and sardonic parable about how finding happiness in life is challenged by the continual collision of past and future with the present. Jack Griffin is happy in his marriage, his home in Connecticut, the transition of his career as a Hollywood scriptwriter to a college teaching post, and his thriving daughter. In the course of the novel, as we move backward and forward in time, all these foundations of his life are threatened. At the beginning, his return to Cape Cod to attend a wedding o [...]

I love Richard Russo. This is my 3rd Russo read in a year, and I'm hooked. That Old Cape Magic is wise and very funny. Spoken in first person, we really get inside the skin of Jack Griffen, learning to empathize with all his baggage around his parents and how their stormy relationship and vacations in Cape Cod gets him stuck in behaviors that even he doesn't like, but can't change. The writing comes from a mature and knowing place that looks at people and loves them despite in spite of their wea [...]

mid life crisis precipitated by protagonist's daughter's engagement and his father's deathstruggle with purpose and longing to return from academic backwaters to screen writingtries to reconcile his parents' disinterest in him as a child with fractious relationship with mother now(view spoiler)[jumps ahead to the wedding, with separation from wife in progress, feel we missed something (hide spoiler)]does pick up pace and holds my interest in the second halfmy first read from Richard Russo, might [...]

Sally said: "This Russo book is a funny, poignant look at a man's mid-life crisis as he travels Cape Cod and his memories. Like the author's Straight Man, this is a light, amusing story that will be sure to please his fans. The main character is carrying around. This Russo book is a funny, poignant look at a man's mid-life crisis as he travels Cape Cod and his memories. Like the author's Straight Man, this is a light, amusing story that will be sure to please his fans. The main character is carr [...]

Really disappointing. I was initially drawn to this book by the cover, actually, though I was totally unaware that there were reading instructions thereon. This is definitely beach reading, and unfortunately little more. Russo tells a great story, and most of his characters are fully formed and interesting. But he holds the reader's hand the entire way, pointing out the important bits, telling him/her everything he/she needs to know, so that as a reader, you're sitting in the passenger seat the [...]

What stood out for me was that the sense of place triggered the character's childhood memories, and as he relived these memories partially by seeking out the exact locales, his adult brain interpreted the memory completely differently, which is what provoked his current distress. Even when he wrote the short story in his younger years, he wrote it based on his memory as a child, and when he came back to the location with his years of emotional growth, the realization hit him that maybe that's no [...]

Well, here's middle age disappointment at its best. Jack Griffin is disappointed with his life--his job, his marriage, where he lives, etc. And now he finds himself on the way to Cape Cod to a wedding. The very Cape Cod where he and his parents vacationed every summer while he was a child. Oh, and by the way, he's carrying his father's ashes in the trunk of his car. Those ashes have been in his trunk for over a year. And his mother is calling him repeatedly on his cell phone, giving him orders a [...]

Even though I have a lot bad to say about this book, our book club had a very good discussion about it. Turned out there was just a lot to say. Early on, I thought the author was taking sort of a dour, pessimistic attitude toward families, marriage, education, and life in general. I hoped there would eventually be some lovely moment to hold on to, or some tenderness in at least one of these dysfunctional relationships, but even at the end it was completely unromantic and unsentimental. Nothing. [...]

Another reviewer said it best, it was "thin"--would have been a great short story, but the second half really seemed lacking in substance and details. (copied review) The book's two-part structure is simple and elegant: two weddings, a year apart, the first on Cape Cod, the second in Maine. Russo's focus in both parts is on Jack Griffin, a 57-year-old English professor who's having a "middle-age meltdown." Even while the wedding march plays for members of the younger generation, he's busy fumbli [...]

Set in Cape Cod, California, and Maine rather than upstate New York, That Old Cape Magic is smaller in scope than Russo's previous novels but nonetheless contains Russo's trademark psychological complexity. While reviewers disagreed about the novel's overall success, they concurred that Griffin's quarrelsome, bitter parents -- whom Griffin can't seem to shed -- steal the show. Another favorite was the story within a story called "The Summer of the Brownings," about Griffin's childhood friendship [...]

Perhaps someone can convince me that this book is worth completing. As I reached page 55, I asked myself why I was continuing, since I was unable to find any redeeming factors to lure me back. The characters are unappealing to me, which would be alright if their actions were of interest. They all seem to be making the wrong decisions repetitively and continue to mar their relationships. In comparison to Ruth Rendell's, Thirteen Steps Down, which I recently completed, her characters, while certai [...]

This is a detailed account of a man's life in middle age almost entirely from his own perspective.There is a whole host of angst and soul searching, condemning of parents and generally regretting and raging and shirking of the main character's own responsiblity for his happiness.It is well-written but the subject matter and the method of moving through it becomes tedious at times. Having said that the characters are very clear and their voices come through with precision. None of them I found to [...]

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That Old Cape Magic By Richard RussoFor Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he d leave his LA screenwriting job to become a college professor, and where they celebrated the marriage of their daughter Laura s best friend But when their beloved Laura s wedding takes placeFor Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he d leave his LA screenwriting job to become a college professor, and where they celebrated the marriage of their daughter Laura s best friend But when their beloved Laura s wedding takes place a year later, Griffin is caught between chauffeuring his mother s and father s ashes in two urns and contending with Joy and her large, unruly family Both he and she have also brought dates along How in the world could this have happened By turns hilarious, rueful, and uplifting, That Old Cape Magic is a profoundly involving novel about marriage, family, and all the other ties that bind.From the Trade Paperback edition.